A warehouse worker obsessed with mass killings has been convicted of plotting to carry out “revenge” attacks at his old primary school, a police headquarters and his workplace.
Reed Wischhusen, 32, was found guilty by a jury of having an explosive substance with intent to endanger life, possessing a firearm with intent to endanger life, possessing ammunition with intent to endanger life and possessing a prohibited firearm without a certificate.
He had previously pleaded guilty to a number of firearms possession charges.
Bristol crown court heard Wischhusen’s targets included former classmates whom he believed had bullied him, work colleagues who laughed at him, and Avon and Somerset police officers after the force refused him a firearms licence.
The Lidl warehouse worker converted a blank pistol into one capable of firing live rounds, had a viable 19th-century rifle, and was making a submachine gun at the house he shared with his father in the village of Wick St Lawrence, near Weston-super-Mare.
The court heard he planned to stockpile 1,000 rounds of ammunition and a rocket launcher and also had material to make improvised explosive devices, silencers, a full police uniform, bulletproof vests and handcuffs.
He was caught after a tipoff when police, including two armed officers, went to his house. He shot himself in the head in the bathroom and survived – an act he demonstrated in court from the witness stand. He emerged from the bathroom and was then shot by police officers. He again survived and spent four months in hospital before being formally arrested.
Wischhusen had denied the plotting charges, which were based on diary entries found by police, arguing they were “fantasy” and he never intended to act on them. The court heard he was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder after his arrest.
Wischhusen, 32, had a “macabre interest” in the Dunblane gunman Thomas Hamilton as well as Raoul Moat and US mass killers, and had built firearms and explosives to carry out a “hitman-style attack” on his former school.
In the attack he would deliberately target 10 people, as well as shoot dead teachers and attack Avon and Somerset police headquarters.
The Lidl warehouse worker wrote down his plans in a document he called “revenge”, Bristol crown court heard.
DCI Simon Dewfall, who led the investigation, said: “Reed Wischhusen’s plans are terrifying. Had he not been caught when he was, the consequences simply do not bear thinking about.
“He claimed his plans were merely fantasy but it’s clear he was actively working towards acting on them, with many of the items he identified as needing for his attacks recovered from his address.”
Judge Martin Picton had earlier directed the jury to find the defendant guilty of an eighth charge of having an explosive substance. The judge ordered pre-sentence reports and remanded Wischhusen into custody until he is sentenced on 15 December.
“In terms of where we go from here, I would not be prepared to sentence without a pre-sentence report and I will order one and it will have to look at the issue of dangerousness,” the judge said.
“I think there should also be a psychiatric report because there are so many troubling features about the defendant’s conduct.”
